Egads!

Well, it's official. The wife and I are going browsing for homes. I mourn the carefree days when my biggest concern was whether or not I would have beer and cab money for Thursday and Friday.

We love our apartment. It's close to work, a well maintained property and has a nice view of the woods but believe it or not ~1200 sqft is now pushing the limit for two people who abhor the thought of discarding things (I am try tho' - I'm scanning as many bills, papers, and other things typically kept in paper form into PDFs and that should clear up an good 24+ sqft once everything is done). We are also planning on performing an e-bay rampage where everything and anything that we are hanging onto because "you just never know when it might come in handy" is getting the heave-ho.

Still, with the green card tantalizingly close to being within our grasp and job security pretty much established with the wife's tenure and greater course work an my institution under our belt we feel it may actually be time to think about getting a home of our own. The actual purchase may be a year or so down the road but we are at least doing semi-serious research and investigation into what is available and thinking about what we would want in a home. Priority number one: NO FUCKING 2 CAR GARAGE THAT DOMINATES THE VIEW!!!. God I hate those types of houses! In my view there is nothing worse than driving down a street and seeing double wide garage doors taking up 95% of the view of a house. What kind of statement about values does that make? My other Ford Expedition super gas guzzling monster truck is a GM Lincoln monster that costs more to run and insure than a years worth of cruises around the world? My vehicle can drive over a fortified tank and I'll think it's just a mild speed bump. God knows I'll never take my baby off-road and get a speck of dust on her....... But I digress.

Homes. It's kind of exciting and terrifying. The thought of owning a house. We finally get to paint and decorate as we want but it also means we've pretty much accepted that we are going to stay in Winston-Salem for a considerable period of time. Fortunately, things in this little burg are actually starting to look a little better (more interesting eating establishments, and entertainment venues are popping up every week), W-S is becoming less of a chain, franchise outlet town and more of a vibrant, individualistic, quirky entrepreneur town.

Homes. Cool. I can get with the concept.